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Christmas is purely and simply a celebration of consumerism and excess. The Japanese are experts at the consumerism bit of that and not too bad on the excess.

The Japanese love Kishamatsu or christmas although in Japan it has virtually no religious significance or meaning.

They put up trees, decorations, drink special Christmas wine and give each other gifts (the Japanese love to give gifts), have dinner parties.

It is the second most celebrated non-holiday in Japan, as December 25 is just another working day in the land of the rising sun.

Japan is wonderful once you get away from Tokyo and the larger cities.

namaste

Francis Xavier was from Portugal in 1549, taught us Christianity about 400 years ago. It was the first experience of this for the Japanese and Christmas became popular throughout Japan from that time. The first recorded Christmas Mass was celebrated at Yamaguchi Church in 1552. Even today's there are 'KAKURE' (secret Christians), who hide that they are Christians, and they still use Latin when they sing Christmas carols. This style of celebrating Christmas has not changed since the custom began 400 years ago.

In 1639 National Isolation was imposed upon Japan, and most Christians changed their religion at that time, but some, especially the KAKURE, kept Christmas in secret all through the persecution.

In 1854, American navy Commodore Perry opened National Isolation and Japan began to take to Western culture like a dry sponge to water.But Christmas was not well known at that time. In 1875 in Harajo School in the Ginza area of Tokyo, Christmas was celebrated. It was strange and amusing because Santa Claus appeared dressed like a Samurai.

In Taisho period (1912-1926) a lot of Western countries began ordering Christmas decorations and toys from Japan in stead of from Germany. Japanese manufacturers made Christmas lights for the tree, and dolls of Santa Claus for ornamentation, some were made of celluloid. And Aluminium artificial Christmas Trees came from Japan also. These Christmas things were getting pretty common and easy to find in Western department stores and toy shops after WWII.

More of the tradition at this site:

http://www.christmasarchives.com/wjapan.html

Well, we don't celebrate Christmas the same way many Westerners do. See the word "Christ" in "Christmas"? It's a Christian holiday, not just a Catholic holiday- although Catholicism, yes, is a variety of Christianity. Anyway, in Japan, almost nobody celebrates Christmas for it's religious value; it's more of a "Valentine's Day" equivalent, not the same "family oriented religious holiday" that is celebrated in many other countries. (However, many Westerners don't celebrate Christmas for its religious value either- like many others, some- including atheists and people of non-Christian religions- just celebrate Christmas as a time for giving gifts, and that's basically what we Japanese celebrate it as.) So, basically: We don't celebrate it the same way. It's not really about Jesus here, for the most part, nor is it widely about family. It's about getting good deals in the stores and romantic time with your lover, lol. My mother was raised Christian, but my dad's pretty well an Atheist. (He calls himself a Shinto-Buddhist, but in Japan that's pretty well the same as saying, "I don't know much about my religion, I'm agnostic.") So, we celebrate Christmas much like my mother did when she used to live in America. We put up a tree, do the whole "Christmas Feast" thing, prayers, and the like... But, honestly, my mother's not a die-hard Christian. She doesn't really practice it anymore, either. I think upon moving to Japan, she kind of took the agnostic rode. Oh, but wanna know what's really annoying? We had over twenty five Jehovah's Witnesses knock on our doors during the week proceeding Christmas. Ugh.

Christmas/Yule/Saturnalia is a secular holiday. For a few centuries it was "baptized" but its origins have nothing to do with Jesus and there is no reason why non-Christians cannot celebrate it.

Look at it this way. The first Christians who celebrated the holiday were participating in a festival dedicated to the god Saturn. Why did they do that if they were Christians? Because it was really not a religious thing as much as it was a secular thing. The Japanese are simply doing the same thing.

Spirituality is the goal for every ernest seeker of light and the Japanese have a right to celebrate anything they like.

Merii Kurimasen baka!.

I understand why the Japanese celebrate Christmas.

It's because Christmas is a family festival not a Christian one.

And I'm a buddhist i celebrate Christmas because i like spending time with my family.

Christmas is a pagan festival, not a Christian one. A typical Christian acts like a dog territory marking anything popular, ie pissing all over something to claim it as their own. The Japanese have bought into the plagiarized and totally corrupted christian version of christmas. Christ is actually a pagan term for Father Sun.

Practicing Shaman... quantum physics rocks

Yes they are mostly Buddhists. Christmas in Japan is about consumerism not praying to Jesus. And Japan is the most consumeristic society imaginable. Yet they are very devout Buddhists -- very respectful very spiritual. Its a fascinating dichotomy but their economy is the 2nd biggest and so they have to find a way to use Christimas to promote goods.

Because people like to celebrate things. What was religious about their celebration? gifts? snow? trees? lights? stars? These were all being used to celebrate the rebirth of the sun in the annual solar cycle (Dec. 25th) long before Jesus was ever invented by Paul.